Welcome to the May 2019 edition of Biggest Fan. Let me explain for those who only join now. It's about those songs that only got one vote in our recent All-Time Best Song Poll. There were 13051 of them! That's too much to get collectively into, but through this series we are going to introduce you to one of them every day. A randomly selected song, so you never know what you're gonna get.

There is also a game element, to make things more interactive. You can give a grade to each song, from 1 (for the worst of them) to 10 (the masterpieces). A 0 will be counted as a 1. Every 100 days I will calculate the average grades and post the current top 100. At the end of each year I'll post the whole list as is.

Some points of note:
- A topic for each song would be a little much, but all songs in one topic too. That's why I make monthly new topics for the entries of that month.
- There will be links to old topics in each new one, so you can easily go back. Once we have collected a decent amount of songs, I will also post a topic with all the songs listed and a link to their initial appearance.
- There is gonna be a Spotify playlist (see below). Each new song will be put atop of the playlist! If songs aren't on Spotify there will be a link to YouTube or any platform it's available on. I will contact the biggest fan through a message if I can't find the song anywhere.
- You can always still vote for each song, even months later. Just go to the right topic.
- You can always change your grade. Again, place it in the right topic.
- You don't have to vote for each song if you don't want to.
- I think this goes without saying but still: always name the artist and title of the song you vote for. I'm not going to guess for which song you vote.
- Comments on the song are more than welcome. Nobody is probably going to review them all, but if you have something to say, please do.
- I know some wanted to go faster. Two songs a day, 10 songs a week, something like that. I'm decided against this, because I wanted to keep it small. We can't deal with 13051 songs, so I'm not trying. I just want to give you all one small discovery (or re-discovery) for the day. We'll never get all these songs done before the next All Time Song poll rolls along, but we can have fun getting there.
- I'll try to get each new song up soon after awakening, so in most cases it should be here relatively early.
- Feel free to ask questions or make general comments about this poll if you think it could be better.

You can still vote for the songs of earlier months, but please so do that in it's own topic.

It’s less than two weeks ago since we had a song by The Kinks, but here they are again. Just like the last time it is a song not appearing on The Kinks Are the Village Green Society, but appearing on the extended edition.

123. The Kinks - Wonderboy
Year: 1968
Released as a single
Biggest Fan: Zombeels (#604)

Don’t forget you can always vote for earlier songs or change your vote!

It sounds like classic Kinks, but just not as good as their real classics. The pretty voice, the jangly melodies, that hint of nostalgia: it's all there, but the sound is very muddled, with too many elements fighting for attention. A lesser effort, that I actually don't miss on the Village Green album.

It sounds like classic Kinks, but just not as good as their real classics. The pretty voice, the jangly melodies, that hint of nostalgia: it's all there, but the sound is very muddled, with too many elements fighting for attention. A lesser effort, that I actually don't miss on the Village Green album.

5

I agree with a 5, although I see classic Kinks as "All Day And All Of The Night" and "Til The End Of The Day" some other early singles rather than the pretty jangly melodies from their later 60s and early 70s albums that did not fare so well here in the USA.

Notes:
1. It seems that everyone reproduced a typo on the title of the Gorky's Zygotic Mynci song
2. The original mono mix of The Kinks song is much better than the stereo mix. Quoting Wikipedia "The single made its first time stereo appearance on the Golden Hour budget series "Golden Hour Of The Kinks", with Ray's lead vocal buried in the mix. The few subsequent reissues of the stereo mix (on the 3-CD "Village Green Preservation Society" set) continues to use this very odd mix." You can listen to the original mono mix here:

Honorio wrote:
2. The original mono mix of The Kinks song is much better than the stereo mix. Quoting Wikipedia "The single made its first time stereo appearance on the Golden Hour budget series "Golden Hour Of The Kinks", with Ray's lead vocal buried in the mix. The few subsequent reissues of the stereo mix (on the 3-CD "Village Green Preservation Society" set) continues to use this very odd mix." You can listen to the original mono mix here:

Thanks! This actually sounds better and I'll put this one on the playlist. Still flawed, but I will now vote 6.

For what it's worth, Wikipedia claims that the Little Richard album was released in 1958 in the UK and Canada and in 1959 in the US, though I don't know what they base that on, as they only link to the unspecific Discogs info.

Rob wrote:
For what it's worth, Wikipedia claims that the Little Richard album was released in 1958 in the UK and Canada and in 1959 in the US, though I don't know what they base that on, as they only link to the unspecific Discogs info.

Not a fan of the lead vocals, even less a fan of the harmony vocals, and really not a fan of the drums. Guitars are just fine.
It's main redeeming factors for me are the brass and the overall style of the song. And the fact that even my worst Stones' (or any 60s rock for that matter) songs aren't truly bad, so I'm going with the halfway grade of 5.

125. Little Richard – Kansas City - 6 for the version that is currently linked in the Spotify list, 8 for the medley (which is the version on Hymie's list).

I might be wrong but it seems like the playlist links to the wrong version of Little Richard's Kansas City.

FWIW I'd rate the Kansas City/Hey Hey Hey medley 8/10 and the later version a 6/10, I think that both the 'hey hey hey' and the backing vocals add to the energy of the song in a good way. Also the intro is way better on the medley.

Last edited by BobPatience on Tue May 07, 2019 6:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.

The "non-medley" version was recorded first (September 1955) but released much later (1970). The first released version (1958-1959) that we can consider the "original" version was recorded later (November 1955) and featured the "medley". The wikipedia entry explains it well...

Short but sweet, the actual music seems to stop even earlier than the track, about 1:23 into the 1:33.
A great piano and double bass (?) duet, this song really gives me the chills.
The more I listen to it, the more I like it. It reminds me a lot of Japan's Nightporter.
It gets an 8, it's perfect for what it is, but too short with too little going on for me to rate it any higher.

124. Breakout - Co Stało Się Kwiatom? - 7

70s blues/hard rock. I don't love it, but I do like it a lot.
I'd rate it lower for being so long, it drags on a bit to much for me.
I'd rate it higher for the great guitar+bass solo, that hides itself for the first 5 minutes.
So for me the song ends up on the stack of half-decent rock tracks with a rating of 7.

125. Little Richard – Kansas City (the version with a medley with Hey Hey Hey Hey)
As usual. 5/10

126. The Rolling Stones – Child of the Moon
Guys, if you only wear good 60's rock, it's gonna be hard. Jagger's voice is still exceptional. 7.5/10

127. Tom Waits – Johnsburg, Illinois
Yet a Tom Waits fan, this one doesn't really touch me. It's a good interlude in the album... that I prefer to listen to the whole album rather than take the songs separately. 5/10

128. The Libertines – Up the Bracket
A classic. As a Frenchman, it pisses me off to say it, but they're good at music, these English . 8/10

Last edited by Romain on Thu May 09, 2019 9:21 am, edited 1 time in total.

I love this. 2000s post-punk/garage revival is just great.
Two-and-a-half minutes of pure energy, but in the right way, it never gets too loud or messy.
My favourite feature are the low harmony vocals that occur sparingly throughout the song.

I'll have too see how this holds up, it might get bumped up to a 9 in the future, but for now I'll keep it as a gr8.

123. The Kinks - Wonderboy - 6

I fully agree with what Rob has already said about this song, but I still do love the jangly sound.
I'll rate it a little higher than a 5 and it's going straight to the jangle pop playslist!

Haven't had time recently to go through and listen to the ones i've never heard but two of my favorites have come up this week so i thought i'd give them a rate:

Tom Waits - Johnsburg, Illinios: 9 - too short to be perfect, but i always thought it was the best song on Swordfishtrombones, and am surprised i didn't vote for it

The Libertines - Up The Bracket: 10 - shocked only one list had this one on; one of the catchiest choruses from that early 2000s post punk revival trend, and title track from a constant fixture in the AM top 500 albums - probably my second favorite Libertines song after Time For Heroes